Family Foodie Featured Friday: Take A Bite Out of Boca

Family Foodie Featured Friday is a weekly feature in which one member of the Sunday Supper Family will be introduced. Pull up a chair and meet the family! Please welcome this week’s Sunday Supper Super Star.

Who is Shaina: I am a daughter, sister, aunt, granddaughter, cousin, niece, friend, roommate, foodie, blogger, home cook, baker, event planner, yogi, gym rat, wino, coffee addict, reader, writer, singer, Pisces, and last but not least a Jersey girl. I moved from south Jersey to south Florida about 2 ½ years ago and never looked back. I’ve been having an amazing time as part of a food blogging community with people from all over the world, but I also really enjoy being a big part of the south Florida food scene. I work as an Event Planner for Publix Aprons, working very closely with the Cooking School, but on my own time I am either volunteering at or attending various foodie events and dining at restaurants all over the area – eating, drinking, Instagraming, and then writing about my experience for all of you to read about!

Her favorite #SundaySupper theme so far: I loved the Middle Eastern theme on November 3rd, 2013. This theme finally gave me a reason to take out my copy of Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tammi that I had been dying to cook from. I really enjoyed seeing the huge variety of recipes posted by everyone, too. There were some very interesting and delicious-sounding food – some of which I never even heard of! I made Burnt Eggplant with Garlic, Lemons and Pomegranate Seeds. Not only was I happy to cook a recipe out of Jerusalem, but this particular recipe tested new limits for me. I had never cooked eggplant the way this recipe called for or eaten it this way, and I’d never seeded an entire pomegranate either. That in itself was an experience! My kitchen seriously looked like a death scene…

Her most popular #SundaySupper post: I haven’t been a member of the #SundaySupper group for too long, but my most popular recipe so far has been my Roasted Butternut Squash with Wilted Kale, Mushrooms and Garlic for the “Squashin’ Winter” theme on November 17th, 2013. This is actually one of my own personal favorite recipes, and a favorite among my friends and family too. My older sister saw my post and immediately texted me to say she was making it for dinner that night. Hours later, I got another text with a photo of the dish and in big bold letters underneath “DELICIOUS!” Needless to say, everyone I’ve ever made this for also loved it!

Fun Fact: I tried bacon for the first time in my life a couple months ago, and I really didn’t find it all that amazing…. Don’t hate me! The only reason I tried it is because Chef Kevin Gillespie (Top Chef finalist season 6) was doing a demonstration dinner at the Publix Aprons Cooking School, and of course one of his dishes had bacon in it. He was stunned when I said I’d never had it before, so out came the iPhones and everyone recorded me as I tried my very first bite of bacon. You can see the video here.

Comments

You know what? I went through a 7 year phase where I HATED bacon. I couldn’t even stand to be around it, or even think about it. I have no idea why this happened – I had no bad experience with it or anything. I just woke up one day and hated it. And for that whole time, I got teased and chided for being un-American. hahaha.

After seeing photos of you which are larger than a thumb-size Twitter photo, I am convinced your blog title should be the Model Chef…Because you are beautiful and so are your dishes! I’m pretty sure I told you but a friend said she loved your eggplant recipe =)

P.s. Chef Kevin was a fave on Top Chef =) How wonderful that you got to meet him!